SPEAKER_00: I'm Joey.
SPEAKER_00: I do go to the Gilbert campus here where we're at right now.
SPEAKER_00: Me and my wife were having a little bit of struggles, and she was saying we should go into church.
SPEAKER_00: And she didn't want to do it, you know, without me.
SPEAKER_00: So understandable.
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: If you think it'll make things better, let's give it a try.
SPEAKER_00: And since August 24, I got the little date noted in there every every week.
SPEAKER_00: I got the date, the message, my notes about it, and kind of just hit home the first time we went.
SPEAKER_00: It's like each message it feels like.
SPEAKER_00: It's like speaking to you personally.
SPEAKER_00: So we did.
SPEAKER_00: We kept coming every Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: Started thinking, like, what next?
SPEAKER_00: How do I start like growing in my faith?
SPEAKER_00: Start talking about tithing and giving and having the conversation with my wife.
SPEAKER_00: Can we?
SPEAKER_00: Like, should we?
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: Never a good time.
SPEAKER_00: And then uh last year, towards the end of the year, um sales, just having a terrible month, not even close to hitting my goal.
SPEAKER_00: I'm probably 25, 30% away from the goal.
SPEAKER_00: I'm worried I'm not gonna get paid for an entire month, and then next month I'm gonna have no money going into holidays.
SPEAKER_00: We come in there, they started the you know, the 90-day challenge, right?
SPEAKER_00: For giving.
SPEAKER_01: No questions asked.
SPEAKER_01: You can take the 90-day challenge with a money back guarantee.
SPEAKER_00: I was like, well, that's kind of speaking right to my soul here right now.
SPEAKER_00: So, like, we gotta we that I think that's a sign.
SPEAKER_00: Scary to try to give away money when you think you're about to not have any.
SPEAKER_00: And honestly, I think it was the money back guarantee that was like, hey, you know, we'll give you that money back.
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, I'm not gonna do it hoping I get my money back.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna do it hoping that I don't want that money back.
SPEAKER_00: We literally went home and we were signed up within an hour of leaving service.
SPEAKER_00: Uh very next day.
SPEAKER_00: So, like immediate.
SPEAKER_00: Just had the best day that I've had all year, like literally the entire year.
SPEAKER_00: Hit my goal for the month.
SPEAKER_00: Like I said, I was probably 25 or 30% away, got that all in one day.
SPEAKER_00: It didn't slow down for me like it did for everyone else.
SPEAKER_00: It actually picked up.
SPEAKER_00: And then December was the best month I've had in probably three or four years.
SPEAKER_00: That's like not why you do it, right?
SPEAKER_00: It's not like I'm gonna donate so that I can get more money back.
SPEAKER_00: You're doing it to get closer to God, you're doing it to uh, you know, test your faith.
SPEAKER_00: And maybe it's not an immediate turnaround, but there will be a change, there will be a turnaround, and it worked out that way for me, which was awesome.
SPEAKER_00: But when I started, I was like, you know, on the fence.
SPEAKER_00: If it's something you've been feeling on the inside or thinking, you know, act on it.
SPEAKER_00: You know, it's if you're thinking it and then something speaks to you, take that next step and just see.
SPEAKER_00: For me, I'm like all on board.
SPEAKER_01: So isn't that cool?
SPEAKER_01: Man, that is uh that is awesome.
SPEAKER_01: Joey and his wife were here at the last service, and uh, I just super grateful for them sharing their story.
SPEAKER_01: I want to welcome all of our campus, everybody online.
SPEAKER_01: I would just say, if you're if you're a guest here, I I think one of the things you look around at this place is you're just seeing life change all over.
SPEAKER_01: God's just doing some incredible things, and love seeing a person like Joey just take that challenge and just be like, hey, I I didn't grow up in church.
SPEAKER_01: Man, I didn't grow up around this.
SPEAKER_01: I I don't even understand.
SPEAKER_01: But I'm gonna take that challenge if that's what it takes to get my heart closer to God's heart, and just seeing the change.
SPEAKER_01: And there's so many just places and ways that that's that's happening.
SPEAKER_01: If you're new, man, I think this is a great place to jump in and make some connections.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to jump to 1 Timothy chapter 6.
SPEAKER_01: And I want to ask you a question to start.
SPEAKER_01: We've been in the series where we have been talking about generosity, we have been talking about finances for a three-week series last week, and uh, and I want to ask you a question that's it's not a hard question.
SPEAKER_01: Um, I don't even think it's like a theological question, but it might be a question that just is a little sobering for us.
SPEAKER_01: Here's a question.
SPEAKER_01: How much would it take for you, how much money would it take for you to have to feel financially stable and free?
SPEAKER_01: Like if you just think about it in your life, okay, if you think about it, there's probably a number that's jumping into your mind.
SPEAKER_01: Like for some of you, maybe different different uh places in our life, ages, whatever.
SPEAKER_01: For some, it might be thinking about, okay, what what would it take for me to feel financially just secure?
SPEAKER_01: Some of you, that number is like a salary number.
SPEAKER_01: It jumps in and you're like, okay, this number, if I had this number, I would feel secure.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you, it's it's maybe an investment number, maybe it's a savings number.
SPEAKER_01: Others, maybe it's getting a little bit older.
SPEAKER_01: It's like that retirement number, and now the things going on in our world right now, you're like, ooh, that number's going down a little bit, right?
SPEAKER_01: They're just, what is it, what does it take for you to feel financially stable and secure?
SPEAKER_01: What's interesting, John D.
SPEAKER_01: Rockefeller was the first known, like in our history, in the world, he was the first known billionaire.
SPEAKER_01: They asked him the same question.
SPEAKER_01: You know what he said?
SPEAKER_01: Just a little bit more.
SPEAKER_01: And that's usually how we feel, just a little bit more.
SPEAKER_01: I would feel more secure if I had more.
SPEAKER_01: They did a study with people on their salaries and they asked them, what salary, like annual number would it take for you to feel financially secure?
SPEAKER_01: You know what the number was?
SPEAKER_01: It was always double.
SPEAKER_01: So for 50,000, somebody made 50 grand a year, it was a hundred.
SPEAKER_01: 100, it was 200.
SPEAKER_01: 200 was 400.
SPEAKER_01: Go all the way up when it was a million, it was two million.
SPEAKER_01: And you could just keep going because the more you have, the more you have to what?
SPEAKER_01: Lose.
SPEAKER_01: And people worry about it.
SPEAKER_01: Like it you think about this idea.
SPEAKER_01: The power of money for us is not in what it purchases.
SPEAKER_01: Think about that for a moment.
SPEAKER_01: The power of money is not in what it purchases, the power of money is in what it promises to us.
SPEAKER_01: And what it has this tendency to promise is man, if you had a little bit more, you would feel a little bit more secure.
SPEAKER_01: You'd have more peace, you'd have more control, you'd feel self-sufficient.
SPEAKER_01: You, if you just had a little bit more, you would be all right.
SPEAKER_01: Now, if that were true, then the wealthiest people in the world would be the most peaceful people in the world with the least amount of anxiety.
SPEAKER_01: And half the time that's not true.
SPEAKER_01: Like, usually they're the most worried people because they're like, man, I got more to lose.
SPEAKER_01: You see, what we have this tendency to do is the more we have, the more we worry about it.
SPEAKER_01: The more we worry about how we're gonna keep making more, how we're gonna safeguard it, how we're gonna control it, how we're gonna keep it, how we're not going to lose it.
SPEAKER_01: Which brings us to what we're gonna talk about today, this idea that money promises us freedom, but generosity actually produces it.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because money loses its grip on us when we loosen our grip on it.
SPEAKER_01: 1 Timothy, the books of 1 and 2 Timothy, and then the book of Titus, those are actually letters.
SPEAKER_01: So in the New Testament, when the New Testament is put together, these three books are called the pastoral epistles.
SPEAKER_01: They're written by a guy named Paul to two of his proteges.
SPEAKER_01: So 1 and 2 Timothy are obviously written to Timothy, and then Titus is written to Titus.
SPEAKER_01: They were all, they were both young leaders.
SPEAKER_01: Timothy was actually in the church at Ephesus, one of the most prominent churches in New Testament times.
SPEAKER_01: Paul was writing and he was just saying, okay, Timothy, you've been on missionary journeys with me, you've helped me plant churches, and now I've put you in charge of this church in Ephesus.
SPEAKER_01: Here's how I want you to lead.
SPEAKER_01: And he writes, and he says, Not only here's how I want you to lead, but here's what I want you to teach.
SPEAKER_01: And here's what Paul writes, and he just dives in in 1 Timothy 6 and he talks about this issue.
SPEAKER_01: 1 Timothy chapter 6, verse 6 and 7, he says, But godliness with contentment is great gain.
SPEAKER_01: For we brought nothing into this world and we can take nothing out of it.
SPEAKER_01: Man, that sentence, godliness with contentment is great gain.
SPEAKER_01: Man, that's a fascinating sentence.
SPEAKER_01: It's fascinating when you think about our culture, because contentment is not something that we see that's out there a ton.
SPEAKER_01: Like I would say comparison is like rampant, not contentment.
SPEAKER_01: You look around in our culture, in our capitalistic culture, in our Western culture.
SPEAKER_01: Man, what we do is we are constantly looking around and comparing.
SPEAKER_01: Would you not agree?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, you do this, you look around, and social media has made comparison like a full-time hobby, or maybe some of you have a full-time job.
SPEAKER_01: And especially you look at right now, we're on spring break, right?
SPEAKER_01: So spring break for most schools, and so you get on social media and you start scrolling, your life is great until you start scrolling.
SPEAKER_01: Because as soon as you start scrolling, you realize that, well, everybody else is on a cruise somewhere.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Everybody else has got to, you know, do some kitchen remodel that they got the money for.
SPEAKER_01: Um, every everybody else has got a bigger house, a nicer car.
SPEAKER_01: Everybody else apparently has six-pack abs and like perfect kids.
SPEAKER_01: That's what we do.
SPEAKER_01: We just we compare in the Greek language, the New Testament is written in the Greek language.
SPEAKER_01: The word Paul uses here in the Greek language is for contentment is the idea of self-sufficiency.
SPEAKER_01: And you think about it, what does prop what does money promise us?
SPEAKER_01: If we have just a little bit more, we'll be more in control, we'll be more safe, we'll be more self-sufficient.
SPEAKER_01: What Paul does in this moment is he says, godliness with contentment is great gain.
SPEAKER_01: What Paul does is he takes that idea of self-sufficiency and he flips it on his head and he says, godliness with god dependence is what Paul's talking about.
SPEAKER_01: Not self-sufficiency, because self-sufficiency is like this never-ending rat race.
SPEAKER_01: It's this exhausting race that never ends.
SPEAKER_01: If I just have a little bit more, if I can just keep what I've got, then I'll be safe, I'll be secure.
SPEAKER_01: Paul's saying, no, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_01: This is not the way it works.
SPEAKER_01: He says, godliness, shaping our life after Jesus, putting Jesus first.
SPEAKER_01: That's that's our first value that we have as a church, Jesus first, Jesus is not just a part of your life, he is your life.
SPEAKER_01: He's the one who should define and control how we live our lives, how we take care of our resources, all of that.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Godliness, godliness with contentment, or this idea in biblical standards, this idea of dependence on God.
SPEAKER_01: He says, that's where great gain actually comes from.
SPEAKER_01: Not from comparison, but actually from orienting our life toward being dependent on God.
SPEAKER_01: And then what Paul does is he comes back to this idea, he says, because this endless rat race you're on, do you not remember that verse 7 he says, you didn't bring anything in this world and you're not taking anything out?
SPEAKER_01: Like we do all this work to get more, to keep more, to hold on to everything we've got.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, Man, you came in naked as a baby and you're going out the same way.
SPEAKER_01: Like there will be no U-Haul behind your hearse.
SPEAKER_01: There's nothing you can take with you.
SPEAKER_01: You can't take the house, you can't take the car, you can't take your investments.
SPEAKER_01: Guys, you can't take your golf clubs.
SPEAKER_01: All right, some of your pickleball paddles, I mean, whatever, whatever that thing is for you, you can't take it with you.
SPEAKER_01: None of it goes with us.
SPEAKER_01: And then Paul just kind of just steps back and he just gets very direct.
SPEAKER_01: Like Paul gets very direct about finances.
SPEAKER_01: You want to know why we're talking about money for three weeks in a row?
SPEAKER_01: This is it, right here.
SPEAKER_01: He says in verse 9 and 10, he says, Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.
SPEAKER_01: For the love of money is the root of all kinds of what?
SPEAKER_01: All of our campuses.
SPEAKER_01: Let's say it again, of all kinds of what?
SPEAKER_01: Of evil.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't say that money is evil.
SPEAKER_01: What Paul says, he says it is a root of all kinds of evil.
SPEAKER_01: It is something, it is a trap, he uses the word trap, that can lead to all kinds of evil in our life.
SPEAKER_01: Now think about this for a moment.
SPEAKER_01: You may have heard this illustration.
SPEAKER_01: But in some parts of the world, trappers or hunters will try to trap monkeys with a very interesting trap.
SPEAKER_01: They will take a jar and they will put fruit inside of it.
SPEAKER_01: The monkey smells the fruit, wants the fruit.
SPEAKER_01: Knows what it tastes like, he wants it.
SPEAKER_01: What they do is they put a top on it that has a very, very small opening.
SPEAKER_01: They take that jar and they chain it to either a stake in the ground or to a tree and they just set it out there.
SPEAKER_01: The monkey sees it, the monkey comes down, grabs it, takes its hand, and it sticks its hands inside that little hole into the jar and grabs hold of the fruit.
SPEAKER_01: And you know what happens?
SPEAKER_01: It grabs hold of fruit and immediately tries to pull that hand out and it gets frantic because it cannot pull the hand out.
SPEAKER_01: What does the monkey have to do to free itself?
SPEAKER_01: Let go.
SPEAKER_01: Just simply let go.
SPEAKER_01: But it will not.
SPEAKER_01: It will not let go because it wants that.
SPEAKER_01: It needs it.
SPEAKER_01: It thinks it's gotta have it, so it holds on, and the trapper just simply walks out and grabs the monkey that's scurrying all over the place.
SPEAKER_01: All the monkey had to do was to let go of the fruit.
SPEAKER_01: You see, the jar wasn't actually the trap, the hand was.
SPEAKER_01: And it becomes the same for us because you see what grips, like what you grip, what you grab hold of, has a tendency to grip you.
SPEAKER_01: Like it has a tendency to grip our heart, and that's what money does because it promises and says, Man, if you just have more of me, you're gonna have more freedom.
SPEAKER_01: You're gonna have more control, you're gonna have more self-sufficiency, you're going to be fine.
SPEAKER_01: And what it does is it creates this trap that we grab hold of and we put it in the place that only God is supposed to sit.
SPEAKER_01: We begin to put it first and say, I'm dependent on this because this is going to take care of me.
SPEAKER_01: And God says, Man, the only thing that is actually going to take care of you that's going to deliver on what it promises, God says, is me.
SPEAKER_01: That's why Jesus said in Matthew 6, 33, He said, Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and what?
SPEAKER_01: And all these things will be added to you as well.
SPEAKER_01: All the peace, all the lack of anxiety, all the joy, all the purpose, all these things will be added to you as, well, you see, Jesus is not anti-money.
SPEAKER_01: What Jesus is, is Jesus is anti-idolatry.
SPEAKER_01: Think about that for a moment.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is not anti-money.
SPEAKER_01: He had people that followed him.
SPEAKER_01: He had a group of women from wealthy families.
SPEAKER_01: You do you remember this in the gospels?
SPEAKER_01: That followed Jesus and funded his ministry.
SPEAKER_01: He had people like Barnabas and he had people like Lydia and others that actually funded the early church.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus spoke highly of those people.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus was not anti-money or anti-success.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus was just anti-idolatry.
SPEAKER_01: Timothy Keller says this he says, Money flows effortlessly to that which is its God.
SPEAKER_01: And that is a sobering comment.
SPEAKER_01: You want to know why we talk about finances?
SPEAKER_01: Because there is a correlation, a connection between our generosity of what we've been given, to our connection and our faith and our expansion of our faith and trust in God.
SPEAKER_01: It is a connector in our relationship with God.
SPEAKER_01: Paul says false gods never satisfy, they only create more need, more desire, more anxiety, and more sin.
SPEAKER_01: And when money wins the competition for our hearts, we begin to desire things that only it can provide.
SPEAKER_01: Paul says the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't say it's evil again.
SPEAKER_01: He says money is actually a tool.
SPEAKER_01: But the problem was money becomes that thing we trust the most, it becomes a problem.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because money's a great tool, but it is a terrible savior.
SPEAKER_01: I want to go back and give you a little perspective on one Old Testament verse.
SPEAKER_01: I think it'll capture this idea.
SPEAKER_01: It's a sobering story.
SPEAKER_01: Ezekiel chapter, excuse me, Ezekiel chapter 16.
SPEAKER_01: Don't have to turn there, it'll be on the screen in a second.
SPEAKER_01: Ezekiel was a prophet.
SPEAKER_01: He's talking to God's people.
SPEAKER_01: And he refers to, in Ezekiel chapter 16, verse 49, he refers back to a city that's talked about in the book of Genesis.
SPEAKER_01: It's the city of Sodom.
SPEAKER_01: Now, if you know the story of City of Sodom, it is a terrible story.
SPEAKER_01: Sodom was considered to be a very sinful city.
SPEAKER_01: If you don't know the story, I'll just give you the brief overview.
SPEAKER_01: Abraham lived outside the city.
SPEAKER_01: Didn't go anywhere near the city because the city was so sinful.
SPEAKER_01: But his nephew Lot had moved into the city.
SPEAKER_01: There were two angels.
SPEAKER_01: Some people think this might even be like a theophany, like an appearance.
SPEAKER_01: A theophany is an appearance of Jesus in different parts of the scriptures where it doesn't say his actual name, but Abraham calls him Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And he speaks to this angel, and the angel says, Here's what's going to happen, Abraham.
SPEAKER_01: We're going down to Sodom and we are going to destroy the city.
SPEAKER_01: Now, this Old Testament passage is a difficult passage that God actually destroys an entire city.
SPEAKER_01: And there's a whole nother sermon on that.
SPEAKER_01: We'll talk about that, but stick with me on this idea.
SPEAKER_01: Abraham looks at this angel and says to him, he says, Well, what if there's 50 righteous people?
SPEAKER_01: And the angel's like, Well, if there's 50 righteous people, we won't destroy the city.
SPEAKER_01: And then Abraham's like, Well, what about 40?
SPEAKER_01: And then what about 30?
SPEAKER_01: And then what about 20?
SPEAKER_01: What about 10?
SPEAKER_01: If there's 10 righteous people, and the angel says, There's 10 righteous people in Sodom, we will not destroy the city.
SPEAKER_01: The two angels go down, they find Lot.
SPEAKER_01: Lot brings them into his home.
SPEAKER_01: After they're inside the home, they're eating dinner.
SPEAKER_01: It says that the men of the city gathered around the home and began to bang on the doors and bang on the walls and bang on the windows and say, Send those men out so that we might have our way with them.
SPEAKER_01: You know what he's talking about.
SPEAKER_01: Says that we might have our way with them physically.
SPEAKER_01: Lot runs out, he says, No, don't do this evil thing.
SPEAKER_01: This is despicable.
SPEAKER_01: Don't do this evil thing.
SPEAKER_01: And then he says, Ross says a horrible thing.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Take my two daughters.
SPEAKER_01: This is a horrible situation.
SPEAKER_01: The angels actually get Lot and his family.
SPEAKER_01: There's a whole story that goes along with that.
SPEAKER_01: They get outside of the city, and then God does.
SPEAKER_01: God rains down fire on Sodom and destroys the city.
SPEAKER_01: And Ezekiel is talking to the Israelite people about this issue, and he says, Let me tell you what the sin of Sodom was, the reason that God destroyed the city.
SPEAKER_01: And if I asked you right now, get in your mind, what is it?
SPEAKER_01: What's their sin?
SPEAKER_01: Man, you would probably just say lust.
SPEAKER_01: Like the lust that led to just despicable things, horrible things.
SPEAKER_01: Listen to what Ezekiel says in verse 49.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Sodom's sins were pride, gluttony, and laziness, while the poor and needy suffered outside their door.
SPEAKER_01: Then he goes on and says, She was proud and committed detestable sins, so I wiped her out, as you have seen.
SPEAKER_01: The sins that Ezekiel names, that God says, Here's why I destroyed the city, was not lust.
SPEAKER_01: It was excess.
SPEAKER_01: It was so much excess that they got, they became discontent with what they had, which made them want more of what they could not have.
SPEAKER_01: Their sins was pride or arrogance, were gluttony, were laziness.
SPEAKER_01: And there is some correlation that when you have more, it leads to less productivity, less focus, less connection, less, and more desire for what you can't have on your own.
SPEAKER_01: You see, the sin that God said through Ezekiel that led to the other sins was a lack of generosity.
SPEAKER_01: Was you keeping and hoarding everything on your own while the poor were standing right outside your door.
SPEAKER_01: Guys, that is a sobering passage.
SPEAKER_01: And there's probably so many of you, people sitting online or sitting at a canvas or sitting right here and say, Well, that was Sodom.
SPEAKER_01: Can I read you an article?
SPEAKER_01: Or at least just give you a picture of an article that came out in the Phoenix New Times last week by Morgan Fisher, March 5th, 2026.
SPEAKER_01: The title is this Wealthy Phoenix Suburb Spends More on OnlyFans than any Arizona City.
SPEAKER_01: Now, if you don't know what OnlyFans is, it's a basically a subscription-based adult site, it's a porn site.
SPEAKER_01: It's a subscription-based site where you subscribe and people have their own channels and you can subscribe and follow.
SPEAKER_01: It's terrible.
SPEAKER_01: And it says that Arizona says, it says, it says this at the tagline, I love the tagline.
SPEAKER_01: It's like apparently making a lot of money leaves plenty of room for discretionary spending.
SPEAKER_01: Do you know Arizona spends more than$70 million a year on just that website?
SPEAKER_01: $70 million a year.
SPEAKER_01: And here's what the article goes on and says it says it makes that makes.
SPEAKER_01: State users among the top spenders in the country country.
SPEAKER_01: Arizona is one of the top spenders on OnlyFans in the country.
SPEAKER_01: Now then it goes on.
SPEAKER_01: It says, but the distribution of OnlyFans customers isn't spread evenly across the state.
SPEAKER_01: It says five Arizona cities were among the country's top spenders per capita.
SPEAKER_01: And one Phoenix suburb funneled more money into OnlyFans than all the rest.
SPEAKER_01: Can you guess?
SPEAKER_01: Scottsdale.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, if you're watching from Scottsdale, sorry.
SPEAKER_01: But here's the reality.
SPEAKER_01: You ask anybody in Arizona where's a wealth, one of the wealthiest cities, what will they say?
SPEAKER_01: Scottsdale.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, you go on, and it says last year, Scottsdale, it tells how much that they spent, but you know that it was the 36th highest city per capita across the United States, which made it double the national average.
SPEAKER_01: Guys, there is a correlation.
SPEAKER_01: You want to know why we're talking about finances?
SPEAKER_01: It is because there is a correlation between our finances and us being generous.
SPEAKER_01: And here's what happens: generosity not only breeds responsibility.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, you think about it, generosity it breeds responsibility.
SPEAKER_01: When you are generous, when you are generous and place your faith in God and you're generous to a point that it requires faith, it also requires responsibility with your budget.
SPEAKER_01: But generosity also, the bigger issue is there is a connection with our heart.
SPEAKER_01: Generosity breeds holiness.
SPEAKER_01: And there is another side of that.
SPEAKER_01: If you flip that, lack of generosity leads to sin.
SPEAKER_01: Lack of generosity and us being self-sufficient and always just trying to hold on and keep more is a trap that can lead to more and more sin in our lives.
SPEAKER_01: You see, Jesus is right.
SPEAKER_01: Where your treasure goes, there goes your heart.
SPEAKER_01: Where your treasure is, your heart has a tendency to follow.
SPEAKER_01: When we surrender our finances, the rest of our heart follows.
SPEAKER_01: And so here's what Paul says.
SPEAKER_01: He writes to Timothy and he says, This, here's what you are to teach.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 17, he says, Command those who are rich in this present world.
SPEAKER_01: Now stop right there, because 95% of you just checked out.
SPEAKER_01: It says, Well, he's talking to the rich.
SPEAKER_01: It's not me.
SPEAKER_01: Did you know if you look at studies, just worldwide, globally, what do they call high income?
SPEAKER_01: Like people who study this stuff, if you look across our world, what did they say?
SPEAKER_01: If you make this much, that's high income.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what it is.
SPEAKER_01: If you make more than$50 a day, you are a high income person.
SPEAKER_01: Meaning you are a rich person.
SPEAKER_01: You know what that means?
SPEAKER_01: $50 a day, let's just take that, multiply that out,$18,000 a year.
SPEAKER_01: You are rich.
SPEAKER_01: Let me just say this.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you, you, most of you, you are filthy rich, all right?
SPEAKER_01: Like global standards.
SPEAKER_01: Let me just say it again.
SPEAKER_01: We are rich.
SPEAKER_01: And so listen to what Paul says.
SPEAKER_01: He says, command those who are rich, all of us, in this present world, not to be arrogant or to put our hope in wealth, which is so uncertain.
SPEAKER_01: But to put our hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.
SPEAKER_01: God doesn't say, hey, I provide this for you.
SPEAKER_01: What I've given you, I am providing for you for your enjoyment.
SPEAKER_01: You see, God is not anti-money.
SPEAKER_01: Again, he's not anti-success.
SPEAKER_01: What God is, is the anti-idolatry.
SPEAKER_01: He's anti-anything stepping into the place that takes the top priority spot in our lives.
SPEAKER_01: Last week we talked about this ladder.
SPEAKER_01: We use this as an illustration that this is your life.
SPEAKER_01: Think about everything under this ladder, is like your stuff, what you have, your car, your house, your finances, your savings, your everything, and what our world tells us is, man, it's your stuff, which means you're on top.
SPEAKER_01: Like you are the person who owns it, it's your stuff.
SPEAKER_01: Which means you're first.
SPEAKER_01: Like you worked for it, you earned it, it's your say.
SPEAKER_01: Again, it's never the way Jesus defined it.
SPEAKER_01: What's the most unstable place on this ladder?
SPEAKER_01: It's the top.
SPEAKER_01: And what Jesus says is this whole generosity thing, what it does for your heart, is it actually stabilizes your heart.
SPEAKER_01: The most unstable place on this ladder is on the top.
SPEAKER_01: The more we take this journey of generosity toward connecting our hearts toward God's heart, the more we come down the ladder and stabilize our hearts.
SPEAKER_01: The more we put Jesus first at the top of our lives.
SPEAKER_01: That's the most stable, best place to be.
SPEAKER_01: And it is the place that gives us the most peace and the most understanding, the most purpose, the most joy.
SPEAKER_01: All of that.
SPEAKER_01: So Paul gives a solution.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what he says: He says, command them to do good.
SPEAKER_01: We like that.
SPEAKER_01: We all want to do good.
SPEAKER_01: That's the easy part.
SPEAKER_01: He says, to be rich in good deeds, we like that.
SPEAKER_01: We know serving matters, and that's I'll give my time.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the hard one.
SPEAKER_01: And to be generous and willing to share.
SPEAKER_01: In this way, they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age so that they may take hold of life that is truly life.
SPEAKER_01: And Paul says the solution for this area of us having a tendency to believe in what money promises, for us to grab hold of it, for us to want more of it, for us to spend all of our time thinking about how do we keep it all.
SPEAKER_01: The solution is so counterintuitive.
SPEAKER_01: But Jesus' commands always are.
SPEAKER_01: The solution is generosity.
SPEAKER_01: Because generosity breaks the power that money has over us.
SPEAKER_01: When we live open-handed, money stops controlling us.
SPEAKER_01: And then Paul says in verse 19, he says, They will lay up, those who are generous, they will lay up for themselves in eternity treasure for themselves in eternity and take hold of life that is truly life.
SPEAKER_01: See, here's the thing that we have this tendency to think.
SPEAKER_01: We have this tendency to think, man, generosity, why does God need our money?
SPEAKER_01: He's trying to take for us.
SPEAKER_01: God's not trying to take from you, God's trying to give something to you.
SPEAKER_01: God's trying to do something for you and in you.
SPEAKER_01: I want everybody, just for a moment, just put out your hands.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, everybody, all right?
SPEAKER_01: Everybody, all our campuses, everybody.
SPEAKER_01: So put your hands out.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what I want you to do.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to close your fists as tight as you can.
SPEAKER_01: And I want you to hold it.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to hold it.
SPEAKER_01: Almost think of that trap, you know, that monkey just putting his hand in there.
SPEAKER_01: Just hold on to that.
SPEAKER_01: You see, this right here represents how so many of us live with our finances.
SPEAKER_01: Keep holding.
SPEAKER_01: Keep squeezing as hard as you can.
SPEAKER_01: Because what we do, we just believe that, man, if I if I just grab onto this, I hold on to this, man.
SPEAKER_01: If I just, if I don't lose it, man, I'll be able to take care of myself just a little bit more.
SPEAKER_01: I have a little bit more peace.
SPEAKER_01: And this is what we do.
SPEAKER_01: We hold on as tight as we can.
SPEAKER_01: Keep holding on, keep squeezing.
SPEAKER_01: You see what you grip has a tendency to grip you.
SPEAKER_01: And we have a harder time letting go.
SPEAKER_01: The more we grip, the more we hold on to it, the more, and the less peace and anxiety that we actually feel.
SPEAKER_01: Now do this, now just relax and let go and open your hand.
SPEAKER_01: It feels good, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_01: Or at least it feels a whole lot better, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_01: Which is harder to do this or to do this?
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: You see, when we live open-handed, there is the ability for God to put things into our hands, to take things out of our hands, to put things through our hands to others.
SPEAKER_01: For the benefit of others, to help others.
SPEAKER_01: When you live like this, there is no way God cannot get anything into that hand to help you, anything out of that hand to help anyone else, anything through your hands to be influential through you.
SPEAKER_01: When you live like this, you're stuck.
SPEAKER_01: It's you and your stuff.
SPEAKER_01: When you live like this, man, there is an opportunity for God to just do incredible things.
SPEAKER_01: What's interesting is I remember I told you last week just that my wife and I, this has been a journey for us.
SPEAKER_01: It's been a journey for us.
SPEAKER_01: And when we first started out, we've not been taught about this, didn't really understand.
SPEAKER_01: It was kind of like Joey was saying, just I grew up in church, different than he did, but I just did not catch that idea.
SPEAKER_01: So for us with a young family and big bills and all of that, we we lived like this.
SPEAKER_01: And it was there was fear that was associated with living like this.
SPEAKER_01: Where's it gonna come from?
SPEAKER_01: Like, how are we gonna pay for diapers?
SPEAKER_01: How are we gonna take for kids, take care of kids?
SPEAKER_01: How are we gonna do this?
SPEAKER_01: And then, for whatever reason, came into it, we heard that teaching, and there was this moment of going, okay, I know God says this, and we got to trust him.
SPEAKER_01: And it was like, oh, man.
SPEAKER_01: It was all but we opened up those hands and that heart and began to give.
SPEAKER_01: And guys, it has been incredible ever since just to watch what God's been able to do with our hearts and increasing our faith and giving us more faith to believe in what he can do and more opportunity to be generous.
SPEAKER_01: There is this correlation to our hearts being more connected to his heart and being excited about the opportunity of going, God, what do you what do you want to do?
SPEAKER_01: Because here's the thing: when you live like this, here's what it does: it just produces more anxiety in your life.
SPEAKER_01: When you live like this, it produces more peace.
SPEAKER_01: When you live like this, here's the kind of things that we say, well, I believe I gotta have more because my self-sufficiency and my security is in my stuff.
SPEAKER_01: When you live like this, my security is in the God who gives me what I have.
SPEAKER_01: When you live like this, here's the kind of things that you say, why are we talking about money so much?
SPEAKER_01: When you live like this and you've experienced giving and you've seen what God can do and how He increases your faith and has done miracles through the things that you've been able to be a part of, what you do is say, Hey, let's talk more about money.
SPEAKER_01: You see, generous people usually say, Let's talk more about money because it's changed my heart and it has the opportunity to change other people's hearts.
SPEAKER_01: You see, when you live like this, God can't give more joy, more peace, and more faith.
SPEAKER_01: But when you live like this, he can.
SPEAKER_01: Last week we talked about that journey on the ladder, and so the big question becomes is you know, nobody just jumps out and all of a sudden becomes radically generous.
SPEAKER_01: Like for my family, it was it was it was just kind of a process of steps of just kind of letting go and just trusting God.
SPEAKER_01: And so last week we talked about this journey.
SPEAKER_01: What does it look like?
SPEAKER_01: What it looks like is we're on top of our stuff, and it's like, it's mine.
SPEAKER_01: And at some point we've got to understand, no, it's actually his.
SPEAKER_01: And when you understand that, the first step is just to give for the first time, to become a new giver.
SPEAKER_01: To say, hey, I'm gonna, I'm gonna trust God with my stuff, and I'm gonna actually, this time, I'm gonna trust and decide and do.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna make a gift.
SPEAKER_01: But here's the interesting thing about those gifts is man, if this is supposed to draw our hearts closer to God's heart, and it is a journey of steps in generosity, then one gift never changes our heart.
SPEAKER_01: What changes our heart is habits.
SPEAKER_01: And so that next step is to make it a habit and become a consistent giver.
SPEAKER_01: That our giving is not just random, it's not just when we see something really cool that's like, oh man, I'd love to give toward that.
SPEAKER_01: It becomes an act of faith where when income comes in, generosity goes out.
SPEAKER_01: We recognize it all comes from God, and first things first, what we do, we put Jesus first, and we say, in this area of our finances, man, we're gonna be consistent.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna create a rhythm to this.
SPEAKER_01: And a rhythm that creates a habit.
SPEAKER_01: So when income comes in, is it twice a month, once a month, whatever it is, then generosity toward God's kingdom goes out.
SPEAKER_01: But here's the interesting thing that we talked about last week is just because it's consistent doesn't mean it's sacrificial.
SPEAKER_01: And so that next step is to become intentional.
SPEAKER_01: And intentional giving becomes sacrificial giving.
SPEAKER_01: It's not just a rhythm that we now have that's created a habit.
SPEAKER_01: Now it becomes a faith gift that actually requires some faith in my heart.
SPEAKER_01: In the Old Testament, that was a tithe.
SPEAKER_01: God said, hey, tithe 10%.
SPEAKER_01: And then New Testament, Jesus and Paul and others, they just preached sacrifice.
SPEAKER_01: It was the woman who went to the temple and gave the two coins.
SPEAKER_01: It was all she had.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus said, look at that gift.
SPEAKER_01: That's sacrificial giving.
SPEAKER_01: What is sacrifice for you that requires faith in your heart to say, God, I'm gonna give this, and you're gonna have to provide.
SPEAKER_01: And then that next step is to become a catalytic giver.
SPEAKER_01: A catalytic giver happens in two ways.
SPEAKER_01: I explained that last week.
SPEAKER_01: I'll just explain it quickly again.
SPEAKER_01: There are some people, it does not make them more spiritual, it doesn't even make them more sacrificial.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, remember that the size of the gift, the zeros on the gift don't matter to God at all.
SPEAKER_01: But there are some people who have been gifted with the ability to create wealth.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you realize that's that's you.
SPEAKER_01: And God didn't give you that gift so that you can just increase your standard of living, so you could increase your faith, so you'd increase your trust, so you could increase your standard of giving and be catalytic toward the kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: Doesn't make you more spiritual, but it does say that you've got a gift, just like somebody else has a teaching gift or an administration gift or the gift of mercy or hospitality, same kind of gift to be used to catalytically push forward the kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: And if that's you, I would ask you the question: you've probably given to a lot of things.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you're alma mater, maybe to something.
SPEAKER_01: Man, what are you doing toward the kingdom that's gonna last past this life, that's gonna help us, even as a church, step out into our community, into Phoenix, into this desert valley where it's not just a dry physical desert, it is a spiritually dry desert.
SPEAKER_01: People of all ages need, and we've got plans and ideas and thoughts that we're moving toward.
SPEAKER_01: If you are one of those people, are you stepping up to move God's kingdom forward?
SPEAKER_01: But here's the thing every single person can be one of those people.
SPEAKER_01: Because Paul wrote last week we talked about 2 Corinthians chapter 8.
SPEAKER_01: Paul talks about this catalytic step, and he says that the church in Macedonia, in their in their extreme poverty, all came together.
SPEAKER_01: The church was extremely impoverished.
SPEAKER_01: It was in an area, there were some things going on there.
SPEAKER_01: There was a famine in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: The people in Macedonia begged Paul.
SPEAKER_01: Paul was like, you guys don't have anything.
SPEAKER_01: They begged for the opportunity to be generous, and all of their collective gifts, and everybody that lived in that region with the churches came together and created, even though there weren't many zeros on those individual gifts, created a catalytic gift for the church in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: You see, every person, what God's not asking for is equal gifts.
SPEAKER_01: He's asking for equal sacrifice.
SPEAKER_01: And what I'm standing here asking you today, just looking at while what Paul teaches with this idea of there being a correlation between the connection of our heart and God's heart.
SPEAKER_01: And that one of those modes is generosity.
SPEAKER_01: What I'm asking every single person to do is just say, What's my next step?
SPEAKER_01: You can see on the screen, you ask the question.
SPEAKER_01: I've had people ask, How do I give?
SPEAKER_01: It's simple.
SPEAKER_01: You just go to our website.
SPEAKER_01: You go to our website, you can give there, you can set up a consistent gift there.
SPEAKER_01: You can be intentional with your giving there.
SPEAKER_01: You can go to our app, you can give on our app.
SPEAKER_01: There's boxes in the back.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what I would say to you.
SPEAKER_01: What I am asking for the sake of your heart and for the sake of God's kingdom is that every single person take a step.
SPEAKER_01: And I would even say today, before the sun goes down today, man, if this issue is what Paul teaches and what Jesus teaches and what Scripture teaches that connects our heart, I think every one of us probably has a step that we should take.
SPEAKER_01: For some of you, it's probably just getting online, just making your first gift.
SPEAKER_01: And that's huge.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's spiritually speaking, that's a huge thing for Joey jumping on and just making that first gift.
SPEAKER_01: But they didn't just make one gift, they said, hey, we're gonna be consistent in this and try and see what God does.
SPEAKER_01: He's been faithful.
SPEAKER_01: And for others, it's consistency, for others, it's intentionality.
SPEAKER_01: For others, it might be just a catalytic gift to say, hey, we want to push some things forward.
SPEAKER_01: But I want to encourage us not to live like this, but to live like this.
SPEAKER_01: And if you feel the tension right now, like, I don't know, Sean, then I would say, especially for you, try it.
SPEAKER_01: Test God and see.
SPEAKER_01: It's the only place in Scripture where God says to test him.
SPEAKER_01: Malachi chapter 3.
SPEAKER_01: He says, test me in this and see if I don't throw open the floodgates of more joy and more blessing and more, and even provide for you so that you can give more.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna sing a song.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna pray for you, pray for all of our campuses.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna sing a song called Gratitude.
SPEAKER_01: There is a line in that song that says, I throw up my hands and I praise you again and again.
SPEAKER_01: Because all I have left is a hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: You know what that word hallelujah means?
SPEAKER_01: It means praise God.
SPEAKER_01: This means praise God.
SPEAKER_01: And here's what I want us to do.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna pray, and then I want us to stand at all of our campuses.
SPEAKER_01: When I get done praying, I want us all just to immediately stand.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna sing, and I always want you, as you sing, if you feel comfortable, just raise your hands and keep those palms open.
SPEAKER_01: Because interesting thing is when we stand before God, this issue we're talking about, when we stand before God at the end of time, it will not be a salvation issue.
SPEAKER_01: This is not a salvation issue, it's a stewardship issue.
SPEAKER_01: And we will stand before God.
SPEAKER_01: And when we stand before God, the question that we will know the answer to for ourselves at that moment, we will know whether we live like this or we live like this.
SPEAKER_01: And would it not be awesome to be able to come into his presence with our hands raised and praise him and just say, hey, all I got left, man, all I got left is my hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: Is I tried to do the best I could with what you gave me.
SPEAKER_01: And some he would say, Man, you gave me a lot.
SPEAKER_01: Some you say, man, it's not, but I was trying to be the best steward that I could with it.
SPEAKER_01: And all I got is just some praise God moments of people that I saw that connected with you, found their peace in you.
SPEAKER_01: Man, that's what we are hoping for, that's what God's hoping for in your heart is to connect it with Him and live open-handed.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_01: Father, we just come before you right now.
SPEAKER_01: As we sing, we want to say how grateful we are.
SPEAKER_01: God, we're so grateful.
SPEAKER_01: Just for everything that you've given us, everything you have provided for us.
SPEAKER_01: God, we want you to know we just love you and we're so thankful.
SPEAKER_01: And Father, as we sing the song, we just open our hands and we praise you, and we sing those words that all I have left is a hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: My praise God.
SPEAKER_01: Father, I pray that we will just open those hands and we will sing.
SPEAKER_01: And I pray that it'll be convicting for us that in this area you want us to take a step towards you.
SPEAKER_01: Father, I pray for everyone who does.
SPEAKER_01: I pray that you will provide and not just provide, you will overwhelm them with more joy, more trust, and more faith because they see miracles happening in their lives.
SPEAKER_01: God, we love you.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you for your provision in our life, but thank you so much more for Jesus and his forgiveness in our life.
SPEAKER_01: It's in his name we pray.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.